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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Robbie Smith

Londoner’s Diary: Lights, camera, Radcliffe: star plots directing move

Daniel Radcliffe

(Picture: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images f)

DANIEL RADCLIFFE has been starring in films since the age of 11, but now he wants to get behind the camera himself.

“I’ve written something and I hope to direct it in the next couple of years,” Radcliffe has revealed. “I’ve definitely spent so much time on sets now with great directors that I feel like I could lead a set and do that.”

The Harry Potter star, who can currently be seen on screen in action movie The Lost City alongside Sandra Bullock, said the fame from the wizarding series remains inescapable. Bullock asked him for his autograph — for the second time. “I was very honoured,” he said recently.

Radcliffe has appeared on TV and on stage in the West End and on Broadway, but writing and directing would be a new departure.

His plans at the moment, he says, are for something small-scale. And while Radcliffe might be branching out, don’t expect to see take him on other roles in the film business.

“Producing seems like so many bits of the industry that I really don’t like,” he says, adding to Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review podcast that the organisational aspects would make him “lose my mind”.

Why Parris won’t trumpet his prize

COLUMNIST Matthew Parris won the Biographers’ Club exceptional contribution prize last night, which he deemed “acceptable”. At Maggs Bros rare books in Bedford Square, he explained: “The awful thing is ‘lifetime achievement award’. I had a lodger who was a bit of a comedian. Some years ago I bent down very suddenly and farted involuntarily and Tom, my lodger, said ‘and so it begins’. Lifetime achievement awards — yes, so it begins, but exceptional ... that’s fine.” Unfortunately at that moment the hosts chimed in: “It was originally called the lifetime achievement award.”

Tucci perfects the cheeky martini

Stanley Tucci (Dave Benett)

STANLEY TUCCI was on fizzing form at the Palladium last night for a Fane event as he and Elizabeth Day chatted over martinis. The actor, above, cheekily repeated Dorothy Parker’s aphorism — “I like to have a martini, two at the most. After three I’m under the table, after four I’m under the host” — when Day said she had had three. Tucci added: “So you’ve got one to go.” And when one audience member asked how he could be more like Tucci to please his wife, Tucci replied: “You could send your wife to my house, and she could find out.”

Brandreth on Ann(ie) deVito ...

Gyles Brandreth (Getty Images)

GYLES BRANDRETH spoke at a do for Tory MPs last week, but yesterday was back to entertaining do-gooders at the Lunch4Ukraine, hosted at the Marriott Grosvenor House. The event has so far raised over £175,000. Seated at the Wild Idol table, the Londoner listened to Brandreth discuss a TV show he has been asked to do with Ann Widdecombe, a fellow ex-Tory MP. “You know who I mean by Ann Widdecombe,” he said, “That curious cross between Danny DeVito and Margaret Rutherford.”

Epic night for the stars (and a pooch)

ANYA TAYLOR-JOY glittered alongside musician boyfriend Malcolm McRae at a screening of her Viking epic, The Northman, in Leicester Square last night. Also on the red carpet was model Ikram Abdi Omar. Over at Dover Street Market, the launch of the new Marc Jacobs collection drew models Ella Eckersley and Nassia and journalists TJ Sidhu and Danielle Emerson — the latter even accessorised with a dog. So hot right now.

SW1A

BORIS JOHNSON’S government continues to take fire after announcing plans to ban conversion therapy — excluding attempts to alter gender identity. Now even author Philip Pullman has joined in, condemning the changes as “pure, cold-eyed evil.” As backbenchers push back too, how long will the position hold?

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TORY MP Ben Bradley has deleted a tweet in which he claimed Channel 4 receives money from the taxpayer. “I haven’t said what you’re accusing me of saying,” he huffed this morning after getting rid of the offending message. Not exactly a vote of confidence in himself to delete it though, is it?

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